Indian-origin Rishi Sunak takes charge as UK PM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 25

Rishi Sunak made an impressive comeback to become the UK’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister, seven weeks after he had lost the race for 10 Downing Street to Liz Truss.

Editorial: PM Rishi Sunak

Sunak, one of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster and the first PM of UK of colour, was on Tuesday asked to form the government by King Charles III after his two competitors bowed out due to lack of support from Conservative Party MPs. Penny Mordaunt failed to get enough backing and former PM Boris Johnson withdrew from the contest.

The 42-year-old investment banker-turned politician is the youngest British Prime Minister in 210 years. Also the UK’s first Hindu Prime Minister, Sunak took over with a promise to put the crisis-hit country’s needs “above politics” and “fix the mistakes” made by his predecessor, a day after he was elected the leader of the Conservative Party in a historic leadership run. In his first address at the doorstep of 10 Downing Street in London after meeting the King at Buckingham Palace, the new Prime Minister said he was taking over at a time when the UK was facing a “profound economic crisis” while dealing with the aftermath of Covid and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“I admired her (Truss’) restlessness to create change. But some mistakes were made… And I have been elected… to fix these mistakes,” Sunak said as he sought to bring stability to the UK after months of political and economic turmoil.

Earlier in the day, outgoing PM Truss chaired her final Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street before making her way to Buckingham Palace to formally tender her resignation to the 73-year-old monarch. Sunak then arrived at the palace for his meeting with the King, who then invited him to form a government as the UK’s 57th PM and the third in just seven weeks. Sunak describes himself as a “proud Hindu”. His victory on Diwali has resonated among the Indian diaspora groups across the UK, who have hailed it as a “historic moment” in British social history.

After revolting against Johnson and then losing out to Truss in the leadership race on September 5, it seemed he had been shut out of the political high table in the UK, for some time at least. But Truss’ stint as Prime Minister self-combusted after a series of economically disastrous decisions that alienated the Tory support base.

In a departure from other British politicians, Sunak has a different take on ties with India, a nation with whom his connection is both “distant” and “close”. “Distant because his grandfather had moved to Africa from the Indian subcontinent several decades ago. And close as his wife has proudly held on to her Indian citizenship,” said an analyst.

Akshata Murty, his wife, is the daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and is the wealthiest woman in Britain by virtue of holding 0.93 per cent of shares in Infosys, an IT giant controlled by her father.

3 immediate challenges

• UK’s slowing economic growth — it may force PM Sunak to raise tax rates and make spending cuts
• High inflation triggered by the spiralling energy prices in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war
• Budget shortfall that has in recent past eroded the country’s financial credibility internationally

Parents were born in Kenya, Tanzania

n Sunak was born in Southampton to parents of Indian descent who had migrated to the UK from

East Africa in the 1960s

• His father Yashveer Sunak was born in Nairobi and his mother Usha Rani in Tanzania
• Paternal grandparents were from Gujranwala (then in undivided India and now in Pakistan)
• There’s no official word about his ancestry, but his grandparents are said to be Punjabi Khatris

1980 The year Sunak was born

At 42 Youngest UK PM in 200 yrs

In ‘250 rich club’

The combined wealth of Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty is said to be worth over $800 million, putting them among 250 wealthiest British families

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